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Prime Minister Stephen Harper right, and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder chat on the banks of the Detroit River in Windsor, Ont., on Friday, June 15, 2012, ahead of an announcement for a new $1-billion bridge connecting the city with Detroit. (Mark Spowart/The Canadian Press)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, likely a little bleary-eyed after a marathon voting session to get his government’s budget to third reading, trekked down the 401 to Windsor, Ont., on Friday, to make an announcement about the future of the border between Windsor and Detroit, Mich. Harper and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced plans to build a $1-billion bridge over the Detroit River, connecting what is the busiest commercial border crossing between Canada and the United States.

Canada is poised to take on all the risk and rewards of the bridge project, while the highlight from Michigan’s perspective is no risk for its taxpayers – thanks to Canada’s offer to pay up to $550 million towards the state’s share of the project.

Another key feature in the deal for the economically struggling state is how the U.S. federal government is allowing the Canadian funds to count under a matching grant program for new roads and infrastructure that will provide around $2 billion in grants. […]

Canada is to be repaid through bridge tolls for the loan and will carry all the financial risk if there is not enough revenue to cover those costs. A private contractor will be retained to finance, build and manage the bridge and Canada will owe payments under the planned public-private partnership.

It’s a major project 10 years in the making. Below is the full text of Harper’s speech at the announcement, a speech that even invoked the War of 1812.

We shall launch a truly visionary project, one that will mean jobs and growth in both Canada and in the United States. Today, Governor Snyder and I are proud to announce that we have reached an agreement to build the long-awaited Detroit River International Crossing. Now, this is quite a large project, even for countries such as the U.S. and Canada. So, I want to tell you why we’re building a new bridge, and what the larger context is.

To put it in a nutshell, this new bridge, the second across the Detroit River, is an investment in the future of the North American economy, of North American trade and of North American manufacturing. It is a sign of our determination to move forward during a difficult time in the global economy. And it is a celebration of the deep friendship that exists between Canada and the United States.

Ladies and gentlemen, some of you may know that last week I was in Europe. I was there for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, but I also had the opportunity to discuss developments with British Prime Minister Cameron and French President Hollande. The risks to the global economy stemming from the Eurozone remained elevated, with the capacity to effect all of us. They have also led, in some quarters, to a debate about the merits of fiscal discipline versus growth. Of course, Canada has chosen both. Under our Economic Action Plan, Canada has the lowest debt burden in the G-7, by far, and we are well on the way to balancing our budget by 2015. But the Economic Action Plan also tackles other obstacles to growth by changing immigration processes, for example, making labour market reforms, regulatory reforms, technology reforms and pursuing an ambitious trade agenda.

And it is trade, more specifically, increasing trade, that sets the context for what we’re doing here at our common border. That’s why President Obama and I are working together on Joint Action Plans to boost security, trade and travel at our border crossings. And that’s why this new bridge is such an important investment. America is Canada’s biggest customer, by far. Canada is also America’s biggest market. This is not going to change, not in my lifetime, probably not in that of my children. And so much of that business is done right across this river.

You know,Governor Snyder recently put it something like this … que près du tiers de l’économie canado-américaine repose sur l’Ontario, le Québec et les huit États qui entourent les Grands Lacs. Again, in English, the Governor was pointing out that almost one-third of the Canada-U.S economy is made up by Ontario, Quebec and the eight Great Lakes states. One third, ladies and gentlemen. Once you hear that, it doesn’t seem quite so remarkable that business worth 120 billion dollars crossed this river last year. In fact, just upstream from where the Detroit River International Crossing is to be built, stands the Ambassador Bridge completed in 1929. And the volume of trade over just that one bridge is greater than the trade between the U.S. and Great Britain.

Just one bridge.

These are impressive numbers, ladies and gentlemen, very impressive indeed. Our mutual purpose then, is to build on that success, to cast our nets where the fish are, so to speak. Once this second bridge is completed, congestion will be reduced. Trade will be accelerated in both directions.

And, this extra capacity, this faster border crossing into the American heartland, will encourage the kind of investment that will create jobs in industries throughout the Quebec City – Windsor corridor – and in the great state of Michigan as well, Governor. When the train comes in, everybody rides. So this is a great act of confidence in the future of the North American economy. But one thing more.

This bridge will also be a very timely and fitting statement of friendship by our two great countries. For it was 200 years ago this month that the War of 1812, the last armed conflict between our countries, was declared. Indeed, the first shots were fired right here in the Detroit-Windsor region. It took three years to bring peace back to the Detroit River and when it came, no one thought it would be for long. But it endured. And the longer peace endured the more sense it seemed to make. Hostility gradually subsided. Differences were settled. And our two great countries, Canada and the United States, became the best of friends, indeed, arguably the most intimate and successful international friendship in human history. Governor Snyder, through your leadership in 2012 by bringing this initiative to the fore, you are adding another great chapter in a 200-year-old tale of peace, partnership and prosperity. And we are telling the world that whatever challenges and crises may exist elsewhere, Canadians and Americans can still have big dreams and can still do big things.